What's The Word?
by thewriterstory
Summary: No matter how extensive your vocabulary is, you'll always stumble when you come across certain words and word puzzles. An exclusive view of Skipper suffering and stumbling, as his team watches. One-shot, no romance.


**WHAT'S THE WORD?**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Penguins of Madagascar.**

* * *

It _was_ supposed to be a normal mission.

"Lobsters attack the intruders!" Blowhole commanded and the chaotic fight between four penguins and an army of lobsters began.

Blowhole stood on the segway, pleased that his enemies were thoroughly engaged. "Red one, prep the gas." He ordered discreetly.

"Kowalski cover me, I'm going after Blowhole!" Skipper ordered, obliviously. The mammal smirked, everything was going according to plan.

"Launch the gas sprinklers!" Blowhole instructed loudly while Skipper was still afar.

Skipper turned to face his scattered team. "Rico gas masks!" He alerted, seeing the lobsters wearing something akin to that. It was too late, however. Rico hacked up many random things but he could not find the gas masks he was tasked to issue his team.

Just a wiff of it they breathed. Like dominos the elites collapsed, out cold.

* * *

Skipper groggily woke up, eyes adjusting to the suddenly bright view.

"Ah, just in time for my grand plan peng-u-in."

"What do you want Blowhole? You're never going to succeed with your revenge, ever." Skipper stated.

"You are mistaken. I learn from everyone's mistakes, and the most recent learning is from penguin enemy number 1's downfall. You see, that squirrel tried to brainwash an emotionless penguin to take down the rest of penguin kind. Skipper, do you know what _I_ need to take down _you_?" Blowhole grinned maliciously, taunting him with his expression.

A vague picture of what Blowhole was scheming and the reason why his teammates were not chained on the wall beside him like they usually would, was forming in Skipper's head.

"Behold, the penguin I _hate_ will be killed at the hands of his own teammates!"

Skipper braced for landing as he was unchained and dropped to the floor disgracefully. Just as he recovered back into a fighting position, he noticed his three comrades closing in on him.

"Rico smoke bomb!" Kowalski ordered and the whole place was then shrouded in smoke.

(digression)

"Uh doc, shouldn't you be the one to finally take down your enemy?" Red One The Original raised his claw and questioned.

"Yes we'll get to that later, be patient!' He raised his voice as he scolded the lobster.

"Doc your phone is ringing." Another lobster monotonously exclaimed and handed a metal contraption to the doctor.

"Mom? I told you not to call- I'm busy! Doris is fine! Alright fine I will be there!' He exclaimed into the phone's receiver.

"Red one! Make sure all the fighting gets on tape! I need to run an errand and I will be back for the finishing blow!'' the dolphin ordered before he left his lair temporarily.

(end of digression)

Skipper anticipated most of what he was about to face. He easily countered Private's fists and Kowalski's bamboo-pole, after all he was the one who had taught his comrades the basics and intermediates of fighting. Even Rico's chainsaw was no match for him.

"Kowalski you don't want to do this to your own captain!" He continued negotiating, fighting relentlessly. Fortunately the lobsters and dolphin assumed that the penguins would finish off their captain on their own and did not interfere throughout his fight.

'Options expert down, come on Skipper, think of options! The mammal must have brainwashed them, but how?' Skipper thought while lowering his guard-

"Ow..."

-resulting in him being flung across the hall and crashing the wall painfully, the loud sound resounding through the hall.

'Kowalski stated there was a trigger last time, if Blowhole used a trigger, what exactly is it?' He asked himself in frustration.

"Snap out of it Kowalski! You're a lieutenant! Stop acting like you are an enemy!" Skipper ordered him, exchanging punches and kicks with his second-in-command.

"We live in the central park zoo, all of us! Don't you remember? We're friends! You are my second-in-command, a valued scientist and an irreplaceable member of the team!"

Skipper paused in his attacks - knowing that Kowalski was beginning to get exhausted - to think of a plan. Any plan. He ran a flipper through his feathers, this was already giving him a headache. What did Blowhole do to his men?

Rico noticing an opening, ran towards Skipper picking a fight; however Private was charging towards Skipper in the opposite direction and taking advantage of that, Skipper caused them both to collide into each other.

Skipper winced at the sound of his teammates'collision, 'Hopefully that impact could give them control over their minds.'

Back on his feet now, Kowalski flung himself forcefully at Skipper and pinned him to the floor. Since Skipper had all of Kowalski's attention now, instead of ruthlessly fighting back he decided to try snap him back to reality by reminding him of some of his obsessions. Then a thought occurred.

"Kowalski! What if Doris sees you like this? You know, the dolphin that you _love_ for years." Skipper stressed that word, ignoring how he didn't really approve on his lieutenant's crush prior to this. At Skipper's words Kowalski's eyes widened. "Will she ever fall in love with a potential murderer?"

Kowalski's eyes showed fear, shock and a weird mixture of emotions. "Love... Doris... love..." he mumbled under his breath, repeating some part of what Skipper said, and finally he came to his senses.

"Skipper! I'm sorry! Did I hurt you?!" He exclaimed, panicking as he finally released his hold on his captain.

"No. Just focus on those two, we need to get them back to normal."

"I suggest we restrain them first," Kowalski stated, then gulped.

Rico was cackling menacingly and nearing the two of them, a metal bat in one flipper. Private had another bamboo stick - where did that even come from - and was walking along side Rico.

"You take Private I handle Rico." Skipper instructed as the two penguins worked together to tire them out while figuring out ways to revert them to normal.

'Wait a minute. Love! Love is the key word!' Skipper thought incredulously while fighting, recalling how drastically his lieutenant had reacted to that word earlier on.

"Rico I know you're in there compadre and you have never disobeyed an order before so I command you to at least listen to me," the bat was swung at him and hit the floor where he was standing seconds ago.

"I know you love violence and you love making explosions, but remember that this isn't the side to work for! You work for justice and fairness, not revenge and diabolical schemes!" Skipper rambled, ensuring that Rico could clearly hear everything even though he was swinging his bat and trying to smash his captain with it.

Skipper internally cheered as Rico's eyes dramatically widened, unfocused, refocused and indicated that he was back to normal.

"'kipper!" He exclaimed in realization, dropping his metal bat onto the floor as an act of surrendering.

"Glad to have you back Rico," Skipper responded with immense relief, he couldn't afford to let one of his teammates turn to the dark side permanently, especially after experiencing certain events when he was in Denmark with Hans.

"Skipper! Whatever you did with Rico, you might want to do the same with Private!" Kowalski panted, struggling to keep Private under his control and away from Skipper.

"Rico, Kowalski, regroup and take care of the lobsters, find an exit!" He pointed at the idle and oblivious henchmen, barking out orders.

The two tall partners nodded firmly and carried out their duties, in the back of their mind remembering to look out for Skipper and Private.

The latter duo turned to face each other, one with a crazed, unnatural expression and the other with a grim almost regretful one.

"Private you know that I don't want to face you this way or hurt you." Skipper thought of words he could use to reach out to the inner Private.

'Unalive Skipper!' The command rang in Private's mind like a chant.

"Private you don't belong to Blowhole! You thwart evil and bring justice not take revenge on others!

Private raised his bamboo pole, and with a battle cry, brought it down forcefully, aiming for Skipper's (flat) head.

'Right, focus on breaking mind control, this should be Kowalski's job! I should have assigned this to him, back to the trigger- love, what does Private love...'

(Private had dropped the pole and made his mind to engage in hand-to-hand combat. He was more vicious than during training, which could have impressed Skipper if he were not trying to figure out a complicated solution to solving the mind control issue.)

Meanwhile, since dealing with word triggers wasn't exactly the skipper's forte, his mind blanked out. On top of that, he completely forgot about the weird lunacorn show. Hence, Skipper mistakenly concluded that he had only one way to break blowhole's existing mind control.

To make sure that Private didn't cause either of them anymore harm, he firmly pinned him to the wall and tightly held his flippers such that he couldn't move much less attack.

"Private listen to me! You'll hurt yourself if you continue struggling. You fight evil and not good people, so snap out of it! Kowalski, Rico and I need you to be on our side, you know why?" Private grunted and struggled, attempting to wriggling out of his grip further.

"We love you and you're our brother, we can't lose you to a maniac like Blowhole!" Skipper explained, emotion slightly leaking into his voice.

Private suddenly looked dazed and drowsy hence Skipper out of sympathy, decided to loosen his hold on his exhausted comrade without even ensuring if he was still a threat.

The young penguin leaned back against the wall and breathed deeply for a while, causing Skipper to worry.

"Private, are you okay?" Skipper questioned. He realized that Kowalski and Rico were back to give him a status update. Quickly he gestured for Kowalski to come closer, intending to instruct Kowalski to assess Private's health.

Private looked up at Skipper sullenly, noticing the ruffled feathers and darkening bruises. "Skipper? What did I do?" He whispered, aware of some of his actions and beginning to feel ashamed.

"Nothing, now let's get out of here-"

"Not so fast Peng-u-ins!" Blowhole had absolutely great timing and entered right at that moment. "Red ones! attack!"

The team of four blinked at the dolphin. "Everyone's tied up in case you haven't noticed bottle-nose!" Skipper boasted.

"What do I even pay them for? I really need to fire some lobsters..." Blowhole muttered to himself.

'Self-destruct in 60 seconds!' The alarm blared.

"This won't be the last you'll see of me!" Blowhole promised and cackled maniacly as he disappeared.

Everyone in the lair started scrambling to the exits and pieces of concrete started falling apart, like usual.

"Let's get out of here." Skipper prompted, "Rico clear the path, Kowalski help me with carrying the private."

And so the team escaped just in time, dragging each other to safety so that no one would lag behind, and went home holding each other just like that.

* * *

 **At night, back at home**

"So Skipper, may I ask how I actually turned back to normal?" Young Private asked politely.

"Wasn't Kowalski supposed to fill you in?" Skipper turned to the lieutenant penguin.

"I thought it would be more believable and sincere if you said it for yourself once." Kowalski shot him a disapproving glance.

"No, ask Rico, don't bother me."

"Yes sir," Private replied defeatedly and looked sadly. "I just thought that if they were there to witness and hear _your_ amazing plan to save me, maybe I would deserve to know what that plan too..." he muttered, feeding as much guilt as possible into his words.

"Kowalski," Skipper glared, then sighed. "It's not safe to say the trigger anywhere and everywhere, you must understand, Private."

"Come on 'skipper!" Rico grumbled in protest.

"Don't be unfair him Skipper," Kowalski continued, stirring Skipper's conscience.

"I see what's going on here… you both are jealous!" Skipper retorted, futily diverting the focus of the conversation.

"I knew it would come to this, you never tell us anything," Private sighed and turned around, head bowed. as if to walk away.

The helpless captain opened his beak to say something, but could not find appropriate comforting words.

From behind Skipper, Kowalski mouthed, "1... 2... 3!" And cued with a swift motion of his flipper.

"STOCKPILE!"

The three mischievous juniors pounced on their unsuspecting senior, left, right and centre. As anticipated, the leader fell backwards and the others on top him.

"Let me breathe!"

"Say it!" Kowalski smirked.

"He's not gonna let you go Skipper," Private giggled; Rico joined in, his cackle more evil than innocent.

"Okay okay! I love you all equally, you're like family, you can let go now!"

His subordinates did not comply, they just remained in their huddle.

"We love you too Skipper."

 _...hugs…_

 _...sappiest moment ever…_

"Ahem."

 _!Evasive!_

"I'll pretend I didn't see any of that." An otter made her way back up the ladder, stifling her laughter, pretending to have misunderstood the moment.

The one underneath the hug pinned by the others panicked.

"Marlene!" He cried.

The trio laughed at the leader's embarrassment. "It's just 3 words, you could have admitted them earlier."

He growled in feigned frustration. "Pushing your luck too far, boys."

The only response he got was the teasing laughter of his three comrades.

"I suppose that's a mission gone well!" Kowalski concluded, hi-fiving Private and Rico.

-The End-

* * *

 **A piece I wrote in late August but only tidied up today. I still can't remember if I ever published this or revealed it to someone to be beta-read. (that's how confused my mind is right now). I also hope no one else has done a similar fic yet.**

 **Everyone knows how hard it is to say 'I love you' to a loved one. Especially skippers. This fic was supposed to place Skipper in an uncomfortable situation when he has to admit his 'affections' to his teammates aloud. Do review to tell me how badly I failed, etc.**

 **Have a great week ahead!**

 ** _-thewriterstory  
3 Nov 2015_**


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